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Re: Walmart workers demand better wages

Originally Posted by LaMidRighter

And the funny thing is the newest rebuttal is "Yeah, but what if they have a great idea but can't fund it". I know this is going to be taken as insulting by some but A) Not everyone has great ideas or skillsets, which is why we have low paying jobs, like ditch diggers, stockers, etc. and (B) Not everyone has the risk tolerance or focus to fund a great idea once they have it.

This is why inventors and businessmen are celebrated and usually demand higher pay, there aren't a lot of people with that large of a mental tool bag.

That, and many do not care to work/earn outside income beyond a, self defined, comfortable level, leaving themselves more free time to enjoy. Having a "menial" job, sufficient for one's basic needs, is far less stressful that constantly striving for more, leaving little time to actually enjoy one's life.

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists to adapt the world to himself.
Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” ― George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman

Re: Walmart workers demand better wages

Originally Posted by Muddy Creek

Please show a list of the statistics which show MORE jobs than workers in this nation. AND please show, city by city, where all these fantastic jobs are that hire a 50 years and banks which will give him/her money for a business.

Thanks.

That would entirely depend on your skills. There are far more workers available than jobs at walmart. But there are far more jobs for Registered Nurses than there are Registered Nurses in the country. You cannot really get the real picture by just general jobs vs people, you have to break it down into skills. Unskilled is always heavy towards workers instead of jobs. There is now and probably will always be more unskilled/low skilled workers than unskilled/low skilled jobs available. Many skills have been chronically short for decades. Even in the low skill/no skill job market there are jobs that are chronically short of labor, they involve outdoor hard physical labor and lazy people don't want to take these jobs. They would rather try to force walmart to pay more so that they can have the easy job under climate control instead.

Even if you went to college, you may have gotten a degree where there are far more people with that degree than number of jobs available. However, if you had studied for a different degree and did well, companies would be sending Representatives to you with job offers because there is a lack of people with that skill.

A better education system would help a lot, but not totally clear up all the problems. Some skills just take a lot of hard work and discipline to obtain the skills and will always be short as long as there is not enough people with the motivation and discipline to achieve the basic skill set required. And not all of them require higher than normal IQs either.

If these people running around protesting walmart would spend the time that they use to bitch, complain and demonstrate against walmart, then they would probably have better paying jobs.

Re: Walmart workers demand better wages

Originally Posted by ttwtt78640

That, and many do not care to work/earn outside income beyond a, self defined, comfortable level, leaving themselves more free time to enjoy. Having a "menial" job, sufficient for one's basic needs, is far less stressful that constantly striving for more, leaving little time to actually enjoy one's life.

No kidding. I would rather take a fairly decent hourly job than work in management, no matter how much management pays. If I make enough to be comfortable, give me that 40hr/week low stress job any day. (This of course assumes some break through in medical science that would actually let me work again.)

Re: Walmart workers demand better wages

Originally Posted by DVSentinel

No kidding. I would rather take a fairly decent hourly job than work in management, no matter how much management pays. If I make enough to be comfortable, give me that 40hr/week low stress job any day. (This of course assumes some break through in medical science that would actually let me work again.)

I prefer to work "off the books" now, having reached 58 and looking forward to drawing my SS at 62. I work about three, eight hour days per week for $12.25/hour ($100/day) doing repair/remodel construction/handyman work. I have several landlords that use me regularly and get enough referals to keep busy. With rent at $300/month, utilites at about $200/month that leaves plenty for food, beer and life's odds and ends. I never bill enough (at once) to require a 1099 form so IRS does not get in the picture. In years past, that I did get 1099s then I worked enough to get a W2, that year, so as not to be considered "self employed", which cost me plenty in taxes.

LOL. As I posted this, I got a call to level a mobile home, about 2.5 days of work.

Last edited by ttwtt78640; 12-01-12 at 04:29 PM.

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists to adapt the world to himself.
Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” ― George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman

Re: Walmart workers demand better wages

Originally Posted by ttwtt78640

That, and many do not care to work/earn outside income beyond a, self defined, comfortable level, leaving themselves more free time to enjoy. Having a "menial" job, sufficient for one's basic needs, is far less stressful that constantly striving for more, leaving little time to actually enjoy one's life.

Originally Posted by j-mac

Absolutely true....I over the years have had more than one good idea, but I know my limitations. I wouldn't have the first clue on how to even approach putting something into motion, nor do I have the expendable income to attempt it. So, I am what I am, and should I get fed up with it, I know it's up to me to change it, not my employer to take care of me.

I'm intensely driven, have a running bad luck streak at the moment but I'm not complaining, I realize that once I gain traction back it's up to me to make good decisions, put money into the right areas, and invest in my ideas while learning how to keep them active. It's MUCH more stressful than having a set schedule with set demands, the known that ttw spelled out. I have limitations like anyone else as j-Mac well put it, but it's up to individuals to conquer those limitations and excel, not those who employ them after taking their own risks.

Neither side in an argument can find the truth when both make an absolute claim on it.

Re: Walmart workers demand better wages

Originally Posted by DVSentinel

No kidding. I would rather take a fairly decent hourly job than work in management, no matter how much management pays. If I make enough to be comfortable, give me that 40hr/week low stress job any day. (This of course assumes some break through in medical science that would actually let me work again.)

Employees don't see the management end. In an 8 to 5 the clock strikes and the employee goes home, his job is done unless there is an overtime necessity and many times that is voluntary. Managers don't "8 to 5", they direct the work done during the day, then stay to balance the books, numbers have to line up, plus compliance laws must be accounted for and it falls under management problems.

Add to that, in the event that an employees paycheck bounces it's a personal problem that management must fix. So one employee has to worry about his individual compensation, but management has to worry about every individuals compensation. On top of everything, at the end of the day it everything must balance out to the organization's benefit or the manager is gone, not the employee. In the worst times management must find a way to make the company survive and in the best times the company must flourish, employees don't have that pressure.

Neither side in an argument can find the truth when both make an absolute claim on it.

Re: Walmart workers demand better wages

Originally Posted by j-mac

The overwhelming false premise that I see in here so far is that these people are somehow 'locked' into a job, whether it be Wal Mart, or some other place that when painted by the liberal mindset is the equivalent of a modern day sweat shop. This is simply a lie.

Wealth in this country is fungible, the pie is not finite. More millionaires are with us today than at any time in our past, and more are being made daily. Some people don't like their job, and switch to something else, others, go into business for themselves, and still more switch careers altogether.

The point is that people in this country can do what ever they want, even today at 50 yrs old, I could wake up tomorrow with a good idea, and strike it in my own business...We can not accept the liberal picture of workers held down in crappy jobs they hate, because that is their world, not reality.

I'm a liberal and I'm posting in this thread a lot, and I have never once said that people at Walmart hate their jobs. What I did say was that Walmart hires displaced employees and those who need a job immediately so they can take advantage of them. I believe that nobody who works hard at a full time job should have to be using food stamps due to their paycheck covering little more than rent. The knock on Wal-Mart is that they hire displaced individuals and those who immediately need jobs because those are the people who can be taken advantage of. Wal-Mart can and should pay higher wages or give better benefits and they should be much more socially responsible.

If a Walmart had 150 employees, they could give every one of them a $1,000 bonus and they'd be giving as much as Michael Duke makes in an hour. I think it's the right thing to do, and while I know your argument is "they make what they are worth," the CEO doesn't make what he's worth - he makes however much he can get away with taking. But I get it, you think they should go elsewhere if they don't like their jobs. I think people should fight for what they think is positive and fair. Those 150 employees would spend the extra $1,000 without any doubt and many of them would spend it immediate. It would go right back into the economy. Instead, Wal-Mart's ceo takes it and locks it up. It vanishes.

Ben and Jerry's has embraced the values of investing in the community, in people, and being fair to everybody from top to bottom. There's the type of society I want to live in, and there's another type you want to live in. But if you're going to disagree, at least consider and acknowledge what the other side is saying.

Re: Walmart workers demand better wages

Originally Posted by Mustachio

I'm a liberal and I'm posting in this thread a lot, and I have never once said that people at Walmart hate their jobs. What I did say was that Walmart hires displaced employees and those who need a job immediately so they can take advantage of them.

What you should be doing is thanking WalMart for giving the displaced and the desperate a place to work and earn a salary until something better comes along.

The knock on Wal-Mart is that they hire displaced individuals and those who immediately need jobs because those are the people who can be taken advantage of. Wal-Mart can and should pay higher wages or give better benefits and they should be much more socially responsible.

OK, you are the CEO of WalMart. How much per hour should a greeter or entry level shelf-stocker earn per hour? Keep in mind that right now they are making $8 which is above the federal minimum wage. Then tell me what a more skilled position like check out person or receiving clerk should make. And dont weasel out and say you dont know. Give me an answer.

Re: Walmart workers demand better wages

Originally Posted by j-mac

Mgmt doesn't "hold all the power"... You don't have to work there. You can find employment elsewhere, or if you are confident enough in a skill, or trade you have you can start your own business and work for yourself.

Your's is a false dilemma...

That's another over simplification. Especially when jobs are scarce. It is fundamental that when employees are able to bargin together, they have more leverage. And when had more unions, people made a better living.

AUSTAN GOOLSBEE:I think the world vests too much power, certainly in the president, probably in Washington in general for its influence on the economy, because most all of the economy has nothing to do with the government.

Re: Walmart workers demand better wages

Originally Posted by Boo Radley

That's another over simplification. Especially when jobs are scarce. It is fundamental that when employees are able to bargin together, they have more leverage. And when had more unions, people made a better living.

Nah, I don't think so.... Individually of course, this is still America, you can do what you want...Nothing forces you to stay at a job...If you believe you are worth more, then either accept the path your current job affords you to move up, or find something else...No one said it would be easy, but none the less.

Union advocates especially those astroturfing Wal Mart are trying to force unionization through a very dishonest display....Not from overwhelming support of the workers, but rather they want it so they are making much up out of thin air.

Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.
Alexis de Tocqueville